Manu’s broken hand: How it affects the Southwest Division

Manu Ginobili’s broken left hand appears to have snatched away whatever chance the Spurs might have had as repeating as Southwest Division champions.

But in a weird way, it might make the team more ready for a deeper playoff run that last season’s six-game upset at the hands of Memphis.

With Ginobili playing like he had for the first four games, the Spurs appeared to have a good shot of repeating as Southwest champs. The division doesn’t look nearly as strong as last season when every team finished above .500 and it featured the NBA title in Dallas and two teams in Memphis and the Mavericks who made the Western semifinals despite not winning the regular-season division title.

All of the Southwest teams looked worse this year than last. The Spurs don’t have as much depth inside without Antonio McDyess. Neither does Dallas, which lost Tyson Chandler from the starting lineup and J.J. Barea from its rotation. New Orleans doesn’t have Chris Paul. Houston doesn’t have Yao Ming, Goran Dragic or Chuck Hayes. Memphis doesn’t have Shane Battier and Darrell Arthur is injured. So the division might have been there to win for the Spurs.

But Ginobili’s injury changes that dynamic. The Spurs — if they make the playoffs — likely now will go in as a lower seed.

It means they likely will have to battle homecourt advantage throughout. But it’s not an impossible task. The Mavericks were a 3-seed last season. The Spurs were a 3-seed the last time they won the title in 2007.

But a better example can be found in the strike season of 1999 when New York suffered some early injuries and finished as the No. 8 seed in the East. Jeff Van Gundy’s team notched three playoff series upset victories before losing to the Spurs in the Finals.

Spurs assistant coach Don Newman said that Ginobili is expected to miss six to eight weeks. That would put him out of the lineup until early March at least, giving them six weeks to get ready for the playoffs.

It will mean that Ginobili will be more ready when the playoffs arrive. And it likely means the Spurs should be peaking when the playoffs arrive if Ginobili is diligent about his recovery.